Oklahoma State Dominated Three-Game Sweep of Kansas State
STILLWATER – Sean Youngerman pitched a gem in game one, and the Cowboy offense put up double digits in game two to clinch the series sweep as Oklahoma State defeated No. 22 Kansas State, 7-0 and 10-2, in a Sunday doubleheader at O’Brate Stadium.
With the wins, OSU improved to 15-14 and 4-6 in Big 12 play, while K-State, which entered the weekend atop the league standings, fell to 20-11 and 8-4 in conference play.
Up next for OSU is a midweek contest against Oral Roberts scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at O’Brate Stadium.
OSU 7, K-State 0 (Game 1)
Youngerman took the mound for only his second start of the season and delivered the second consecutive outstanding starting performance for OSU to lift the Cowboys to a series win.
The right-hander picked up his first win in an OSU uniform, working eight shutout innings and striking out 11 while allowing just three hits.
Youngerman, who has served as the Cowboys’ closer the majority of the season and has recorded four saves, did not issue a walk against the Wildcats and dropped his ERA to 1.77.
He got plenty of offensive support as five of the seven OSU runs came via the long ball, with Nolan Schubart, Kollin Ritchie and Beau Sylvester all clearing the wall. The effort handed Wildcats’ starter Michael Quevedo (4-1) his first loss of the season.
Youngerman and Friday’s starter Harrison Bodendorf combined for 15 innings pitched while allowing zero earned runs and striking out 23 Wildcats.
Youngerman struck out the side in his first inning of work, and Schubart launched a 415-foot home run in the bottom of the frame that cleared the right-field bleachers to put OSU ahead 1-0. Schubart’s blast was his seventh of the season.
After Youngerman retired the first 12 Wildcats in order, the Cowboy offense broke out in the fourth inning.
Schubart reached on a leadoff walk, and a Jayson Jones single put two runners on. Ritchie then hit a ball that just cleared the right-field wall for his fifth home run of the season and brought the score to 4-0. Later in the frame, the red-hot Brayden Smith stepped to the plate with a pair of Cowboys on the bases and brought both of them home with a two-run triple to make it a 6-0 score after four innings. The triple extended Smith’s hitting streak to 15 games.
To begin the sixth inning, Jones made a tremendous diving stop to his backhand that saved an extra-base hit, and Youngerman’s bid for history. Youngerman finally gave up his first base runner of the contest after 5 2/3 innings on a Donte Lewis single.
In the bottom of the sixth, Sylvester hit a ball into the Cowboy bullpen that extended the OSU lead to 7-0. It was Sylvester’s second home run of the year.
Ryan Ure pitched the ninth inning, working a clean frame and securing the shutout.
OSU 10, K-State 2 (Game 2)
Hunter Watkins got the start in the nightcap of the doubleheader, earning the win after pitching five innings and striking out five while allowing two runs. The win moved Watkins to 4-1 on the season.
Brayden Smith led off the game with a single to bring his hitting streak to 16 games. Colin Brueggemann drove in the first run with an RBI single up the middle, and Jayson Jones had an RBI groundout to put the Cowboys up 2-0 after the opening inning.
K-State tied the game in the third with a two-run home run off the bat of AJ Evasco.
In the fourth inning, the Wildcats were poised to take the lead on a sacrifice fly to right field, but Kollin Ritchie made an excellent throw to Ian Daugherty that gunned down the go-ahead run at the plate and ended the inning.
Garrett Shull led off the bottom of the fourth with a double and would later score on an Alex Conover sacrifice fly to put OSU back on top.
The Cowboys started off the fifth the same way with a Daugherty leadoff double; he would go on to score on a wild pitch to push the lead to 4-2.
OSU tacked on six insurance runs in the sixth inning. The highlight came from Smith, who continued his scorching stretch with a two-run single to the opposite field.
The Cowboy bullpen worked four scoreless innings in relief of Watkins, with Matthew Brown and Noah Wech each pitching two innings to secure the win.
